As for a review, I have volume 1 so here goes:

I'll start by giving some background on me. I've been performing for 23 years and while I've dabbled in illusions, 99% of my work is parlor or close-up. These days, close-up is gaining in popularity and I would say 75% of my shows are close up. Ok, on with the dvd:

Production value: First I should mention that the dvd is just plain fun to watch. Daniel is an amazing magician but also an amazing entertainer. The production value is second to none and the dvd is easy to navigate. The tricks are performed in real-world setting and then the explanations are performed in studio. Explanations are shown from two angles, straight on and a side view of the hands.

Tricks: Daniel's magic speaks for itself. He is definately creative and comes up with some sneaky cool ideas. He gives credit where credit is due but most of the magic is original to him. There are several times on the dvd where he explains nuances that are just genius. I'll go into those more below. Now to the effect:

Satisfaction Guaranteed: Spectator selects a card that has backs on both sides and no face. Magician spreads cards and shows that the deck is all backs on both sides. Spectator is asked what her card should be if it actually had a face. Spectator names any card. A gag is done where her double backed card is inserted in the deck and then rises to the top. Since all the cards have no faces, not so impressive. Magician then has 4 people touch a card. These cards are placed in spectators hand and immediately shown to be the four aces. The deck is then spread to show all the faces have returned. The spectators double backed card is then instantly turned in her freely named card.

This trick is a killer and is my favorite from the dvd (as well as my wife's favorite). Easy to do. Creative moves that make everything look super clean. Best of all, the routine makes sense unlike 99% of all other all-backs routines which I usually hate. Super visual and fun to do. You will like and use this. 10 out of 10.

Personal Safe: Four coins are shown. Spectators ring is placed in her hand. One at a time, three of the four coins travel to spectators hand and can be heard clinking against her ring when they appear. Last coin is visibly turned into spectators ring. When spectator opens her hand, all four coins have arrived and her ring has vanished.

Very nice kicker ending to a coins across routine. Everything looks clean and the third and fourth vanishes are very clean and visual. The best part is that the appearance of the ring in your hand takes all the heat off the coins and the fact that you are not totally clean at the end. Intermediate coin handling necessary but nothing more than most coins across routines. 9 out of 10.

Twisted: A $1 is shown freely on both sides. it is folded into a square packet. In less than a second, the bill visibly changes to a $20 and is immediately shown on both sides.

This is very visual and uses no TT. The routine is well constructed and no gimmicks are necessary. Handling borrows a move from Torn but is not difficult. The brilliance comes in Daniel's ability to show both hands empty at the end of the routine. He created a sublety to allow this to happen and it will make you laugh. Very creative. In fact, my wife who knows about bill switches said, "I can't figure out how he can show his hands empty like that." It can be done with a borrowed bill, but you will have to prefold the bill. 9 out of 10.

Ego: The cards are dribbled freely and the spectator is asked to merely think of one that he sees. A card is flipped face up on the deck but this is not the spectator's card. The spectator is asked what card he saw and with a slight wave of the free hand, the face up card instantly changes to the thought of card and can be given out.

Deck and cards are normal. You are clean at beginning and end. And the deck is not setup or gimmicked. Super visual. Probably the most difficult routine on the dvd but don't let that scare you. I'd say on a scale of one to ten, the moves are a 6 out of 10. I picked them both up in under an hour. The change at the end doesn't require you to palm or actually touch the face up card with your waiving hand to make the change happen. Both moves are original to Daniel and have many uses. 8.5 out of 10.

Third Degree: Show deck to be normal. Spectator selects are card and it is lost in the pack. Spectator's lit cigarette is used to burn a hole down through the pack stopping at the selected card. Other cards are seen to have a burnt hole through them.

I didn't care for this one and neither did my wife. Given that you can't smoke anywhere anymore, not sure how useful this will be to most people. If you smoke or have smoker buddies, however, this would play really well I'm sure. Just not my cup of tea. 6 out of 10.

Rubber Made: Rubber band is streched between hands and a spectators ring is visibly and I do mean visibly linked to the rubber band. Spectator closes fist around ring and the rubber band melts back off the ring. Finally a second rubber band is examined. The two rubber bands are held apart and one rubber band is thrown at the other where they visibly link in mid air. The two are unlinked and handed for examination.

This was the reason I bought the dvd. The opening penetration is super easy and super visual. Even more so than Pinnacle. The melt off move in teh spectator's hand is also very nice and clean. Both phases are easy to do. The third phase is a killer. Even when you see it, you won't believe it. It looks like real magic. Only two rubber bands are used and you really do throw one at the other. No switches. There is a gimmick and when you see it, you will laugh out loud. I have no idea how Daniel came up with the method but it's genius. Will you use it? That depends on who you are and your performing environment. The handling is clean and the gimmick is invisible but I'll say that you will need a button down shirt to pull it off. That's all I'll say other than it's super creative and not difficult to do. 10 out of 10.

Bottom line, the dvd is fantastic. This is only my second experience with Daniel's magic and he is a shooting star among an ever-growing sea of dim bulbs. I wasn't going to pick up the other two volumes because nothing really caught my attention but I might have to now.

My overall rating for Volume 1: 9.5 out of 10.
p.s. the outakes are really funny.

Eric

Thanks for the review Eric

Thank you for taking the time to put your review together.

Good stuff - it's nice to see an actual review, as opposed to 6 pages of speculation. My set are on order, and reading this review, I'm glad of it. Top stuff,

and rock on Daniel!!!

Liam.

In terms of usable, creative material, I would put this dvd right up there with the John G dvds from last year.

I enjoyed reading this review, as I have been seriously considering purchasing this.

BTW, Hank Lee has this available for a good discount this month at his magic of the month club .

I heard somewhere that there was a bonus trick on every volume. Could anyone verify this?

Emyers99 thanks man.
Mine are on the way

Ilan

I don't have volumes 2 or 3 but would love to hear a detailed review, especially a little more detail about what each of the effects entail. Thanks.

eric

Vol 2 has had to be done as there was an error, I have vol 3 and will post a review shortly

Cool. Thanks.

Great review - thanks for that. My credit card is groaning in anticipation!

Eric, awesome review ( from someone that performs ).

Chris

Thanks guys. Glad you liked the review. As some of you know, my main criteria in judging a trick is practicality. In other words, the trick might look great, but can I carry it around in my pocket and do it at a moments notice as part of a walk-around set. I hate buying something based on glowing reviews only to find out that sure the trick is good but you have to set it up an hour in advance or once it's set up, you have to handle it carefully etc.

In the case of this dvd, I can honestly say that the majority of the effects are practical for real-world performing. With the exception of Third Degree there is really nothing to set up in advance. Satisfaction Gauranteed alone is worth the price of admission and requires only one DB card. So I can safely say that if you are debating about buying this dvd, you will get at least one trick you will use and probably at least one more. On a dvd with only 6 tricks, that ain't bad.

Ah yes, about Satisfaction Guaranteed, can you apply the concept of the method, in any way possible, with normal decks rather than double backs? Or is it only meant to use for double-backs, otherwise the point of the effect will not be brought about?

Not really sure I understood the question but I'll try. Satisfaction uses a normal deck and one DB card which is given to the spectator. That's it. So if you have a DB card, it can be done with any deck (as long as the pattern matches that of the DB card).

Little more down to earth opinion. Sorry to say that I cant fully agree with emyers 99 glowing review, I feel it is way over hyped, especially if he is as experienced performer as he claims.

I have to agree with him on production values. They are very very good and dvd looks fantastic.

"Tricks: Daniel's magic speaks for itself. He is definately creative and comes up with some sneaky cool ideas. He gives credit where credit is due but most of the magic is original to him. There are several times on the dvd where he explains nuances that are just genius."

I don't agree. Most things werent orginal at all. They were mainly variations on other peoples routines and there werent usually any credit to orginal routines. More about credits on routines them selves.

Satisfaction Guaranteed: Allbacks routine that makes sense, but the structure doesn't convince spectators that you are using really double backed deck. The main move is not in my opinion move that can be burned and it is used over and over again. Also main move is called orginal but there are variations of this move in richards almanac for instance and I have seen it in many other double back routines. Also you end little dirty and if I wasnt mistaken Daniel got caught in the performance part of the dvd. Also requires a lot of table space that isn't avaible in usual working enviroments.

Personal Safe: This is basically Paul Gertners coins across routine that was variation of David Roths routine. The ending where last coin changes to spectators ring was also in Gertner routine. The defference between these two is just the steal of the ring from hand instead of taking it out openly.

Twisted: Bill switch that was ok. The end thing hiding the bill is clever but again very risky if the angles are even a little wrong or there is a blow of wind your screwed....

Ego: Basically a color change that looks nice, but again quite angly. Very Similar things has been published by oliver Marcia and Manuel Muerte.

Rubber Made: The best thing on DVD and what makes it worth the money. This looks awesome. Best rubber band routines I have ever seen and fooled hell out of me. Only thing is the contiditions this can be performed, it uses something that cant be used everywhere.

ok, DVD, but not really as great as hyped... The orginality claim is very questionable, most things are just variations and are publishe in different sources. Also This could have been easily edited together with volume 3 to just make one dvd instead of two.

Emyers99, I partially agree with your comments on Third Degree. Being a firm non smoker I don't like to do any magic involving cigarettes, however I liked the idea of this trick so I'm trying to adapt it and find something else that will burn through the deck in a similar manner. Don't suppose anybody has any suggestions? Anyway, on the subject of the DVD I really liked it and vol 3 and I'm looking forward to Vol 2

Still no updates on vol. 2 status as dealers still not having it yet. Hmm... vol 1 and 3 is so good and I really perform these tricks right away.

I love Daniels DVDs. I have Torn, The Project Vol 1&3 and Sh4de. Only knock that I have is during some performances the DVD skips or glitches. When he performs a move it will cut forward. I bought 3 of the 4 DVDs from different dealers but the same happens. Anyone else? Is that suppose to be intentional (sp?)? Sorry, I know this is meant for a review.